The authors analyze nationally representative data from 1972, 1982, 1992, and 2004, examining the mathematics achievement of four high school senior cohorts, and several school and family background characteristics. The authors examine how changes in these measures relate to the black-white and Latino-white test score gaps and to changes in school minority composition. Understanding how our society can address these countervailing forces—the improving socioeconomic conditions for black and Latino families on the one hand, and the increasing racial isolation of these students in schools on the other—necessitates innovative ideas and experimentation.

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of peer coaching on the classroom practices of pre-service teachers. Four teacher interns learned peer coaching functions and techniques before participating in coaching cycles with their peers. Findings show that peer coaching altered current teaching practices, but a trend of making suggestions for improvement without affirming strengths was also evident.

The present study concerns the development of teachers’ beliefs about students as a result of a professional development (PD) course. The PD course sensitized 234 teachers to individual learning differences (ILDs), based on style strategy. Five learning/cognitive styles tools were used. After the PD, teachers’ interventionist beliefs significantly increased, regardless of their ILD preferences. Neither the length of the PD nor the amount of teaching experience affected the teachers’ interventionist beliefs about students. The authors conclude that developing more effective teacher beliefs about learners should become a component of teacher professional development.

This study compares research on the theoretical models and predictors of teacher effectiveness with those of other occupations. Four models of teaching are identified—labor, profession, craft, and art—each with its own (often implicit) objectives and theories about how learning takes place. In addition, there is considerable similarity between the teacher characteristics that predict teacher effectiveness and those predicting worker effectiveness in similarly complex occupations and professions. Specifically, cognitive ability and experience predict effectiveness for both groups, whereas personality and education are not predictive. These specific findings are informative for developing specific models of effectiveness.

This paper documents the experiences of pre-service educators participating in a service-learning experience at a Children's Defense Fund Freedom School in the south-eastern United States. Pre-service teachers praised the benefits of a service experience in an urban context and explained how interactions within the programme gave them the insight into the teaching profession. The author argues that this project successfully bridged the gap between teacher education theory and practice.

This article challenges the idea that the guarantee for democracy lies in the existence of a properly educated citizenry and argues that we should shift our attention from questions about the conditions of democracy to questions about the nature of political existence. The argument is developed through a critical discussion with the work of Hannah Arendt. The main conclusion of the article is that democratic education should not be seen as the preparation of citizens for their future participation in political life. Rather, it should focus on creating opportunities for political existence inside and outside schools.